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Monday, August 22, 2016

Mini Didi's Choice

As I read the subject of Indispire, his week, a true story instantly came to my mind. Here it is for all of you…I will try and keep it as short as possible.

When we were little kids, one of our friends had an elder sister called Minaxi. We all called her Mini Didi. As kids, she was our role model. A state level swimmer, quite decent at her studies too, vivacious, very well spoken and exuberant. Our mothers told us to follow her example and be as disciplined as she was.

The years passed and Mini Didi went away to college to another city. We didn't hear much about her for a very long time until we got her wedding invitation. It was wonderful and the event was as much fun as we all had expected and Mini Didi was far from the blushing bride that we all hope to see.

Then, few more years later, I had to deliver some parcel to Mini Didi in the town where she lived with her in-laws. I looked forward to visiting her because it was always fun when she was around. When she opened the door, she was not what I expected to see. Her skin was pale, her every had sunken in and there was something quite off about her. In fact, I was surprised to see her at home at that time because I believed that she worked in a bank.

She took the parcel from me, offered me tea and biscuits and we spoke of things here and there. Her in-laws were inside the room, and no one came out to say hello. In fact, after some time, they began to repeatedly call her inside the room and I took the cue. It was my time to leave.

I found it very strange and uncomfortable. When I came back home, I happened to mention this to my mother who told me that Mini Didi had made a mistake while choosing a husband. It was a love marriage and these people were totally different from her family background. They did not allow her to work and she had to be stuck at home all day, tending to her in-laws. Her husband had got a job somewhere in the Middle East and he would not return for a year.

No one knows how and no one knows why, but Mini Didi chose to suffer in silence not mentioning any of this to her parents.

One morning, we got the news that Mini Didi was dead. I was as shocked as you all are.more shocking was the new that she had hung herself in her room. Suicide is a way out for the quiet, mousy, introverted people, isn't it? Then Mini Didi? Why?

Now we come to the topic of this post. Love v/s Freedom.

Mini Didi chose love. But she didn't realise that it would be at the cost of her freedom. When Mini Didi had chosen this family for herself, the only mistake she made is that she had looked at her future wearing the glossy glasses of love and romance. Probably, it made her blind to the type of people these were and by the time she realised it, it was too late for her to turn back. I'm sure, she tried to change them too. But if you know how things work, some people and situations are impossible to change. So she chose the easiest way she knew, to get out of the mess she had made for herself. Mini Didi got her freedom at last, but she had to pay a heavy price for it.

Love and freedom cannot be substitutes of one another. They can be complete only when they are mixed in the right proportion. In fact, freedom can probably live on its own but love without freedom, is a noose waiting to tighten its grip on the person it attaches itself to. Isn't it?